Union Rags hurt, done for the year

Please refer to Belmont Stakes winner Union Rags before reciting background information. He is the 2012 winner of a most difficult and prestigious leg of the Triple Crown, and he won under a brilliant ride by jockey John Velasquez. Any lesser writing is unbecoming of this great horse. Thank you.

Quit racing at 2 years old 3 year olds would have a whole calendar year and 5 months to prep for Kentucky Derby Triple Crown Races will be for 4 year olds start this next year Bodemeister could get his triple crown problem solved

I truly like seeing a great colt retire after his 3yr old career ends for breeding . Wouldnt you like to retire right when you had graduated ! Be honest . If a great colt like ( ILL HAVE ANOTHER ) can be sold for $10 Million - why not then ! Dont we ALL work for retirement pay benifits " good grief people" wake up - and stop thinking of only your-self . ILL HAVE ANOTHER will be in luxery for the rest of his career . Same as many of these other fine colts . BODEMEISTER will be headed to Win Star Farms soon as well ! UNION RAGS will be headed for retirement as well . I truly like this idea . ( There are Plenty ) of colts and fillies that have not made the grade ( Just Like Us In Life ) where we have to work for aliving ! These horses are good enough to keep our racing alive . There is no need to start knocking Owners / Trainers / Horses - just because of retirement ! ASK YOURSELF THIS QUESTION - if someone was to come to your door-step and offer you ( 5 Million In Cash ) tax free - "Would You Take The Offer" ...................................... and would you seriosly ( Work Another Day ) honestly ........................ I think 99.9% of all of us would retire in a split second . So , I really think people just need to stop thinking so much of them-self - and just enjoy the horse racing that we have . Its actually not woth all the Risk trying to bring backa colt or filly after an injury : and here is the thing as well - hardly ever better than before : then the next comments will be , well this colt / filly wasnt that gret anyways ! So ya see - its a never ending story to all . Fans are the ones with so much Greed and Foolishness . Become a hrse owner your-self . Put that shoes on your feet . See what path you woul take ! You would be surprised in how fast life changes a train of thought . ILL HAVE ANOTHER : bought for $35,000 - had offers of 3 M - 5 M - 9 M - and sold this colt for 10 M ! Now what is the problem here ! In the United States - ILL HAVE ANOTHER would not have even earned that amount thru his whole breeding career ! I am all for Great colts retirement at the age of 3 ! I do not have to see SUPERSTARS out on the race track on a daily basis . Besides - everyone that goes to the track to bet and watch - just pay close attention to what races you are bettng on - Does it really matter ! No ! ( Here is my problem ) in racing that I DO NOT LIKE - ( Belmont Park ) Wednesday 4th race #10 SILVER TIMBER .................... This horse should have been retired a long time ago . I guess I have too much Love and Respect for these thoroughbreds . These horses that have been winning in G1 G2 G3 and then start tailing off - I just think its very DESERVING to ( Give Back ) the greatfullness that each one of these thorbreds have given to us - instead of racing them till they drop ! That is one thing I would change in racing . I realize some horses just love it at the track - well they can always start doing what LAVA MAN does Owners / Trainers really need to start looking into our racing in a better ( Way of LIFE ) . Its truly an all WIN situation

From the newsletter put out by Backstretch on; http://backstretchtalks.blogspot.com/ Another item I want to mention concerns the breeding of our horses. There has been a lot said about the breeding of speedy and fragile horses in this country which results in the breakdown of so many good horses. Recently I have been looking at the pedigrees of some foreign horses, especially the English and Irish runners. What I have noticed is that the foreign horses are more inbred than the American horses and bred to the same lines for the most part. When I look at most of our good ones I see they are inbred or linebred to the Nearco and Raise A Native lines time after time. I also see the same thing but to a greater extent in the English and Irish horses. So the question becomes; Why don't they suffer the breakdowns that ours do? In my opinion it is the fact that we run most of our races on dirt where as they run their horses on grass plus they don't use lasix. I believe the footing is more stable to a horse when running on turf. Naturally I can't prove what I am saying because it's only my opinion but I think if we did away with dirt racing most of the breakdowns would disappear. I don't know the stats but I would venture to say that even when our turf horses break down a good portion of them break down training on dirt. When speaking of artificial tracks the talk usually doesn't mention the different types of synthetics but kind of lump them all together. Personally, I have never read bad reports about the Tapeta tracks of which we have two, Golden Gate and Presque Isle. I have played those tracks and they seem to be very fair without the closing bias of the others. I did read a couple of articles about PID in which the horseman and jockeys had nothing but praise for it. I think what I would like to see is many more tracks installing Tapeta, as the Arabs did, and running our races on that and grass. I really don't think our breeding is the reason for the injuries being experienced. All this is just my opinion and I'm not trying to convince anyone but it's something to think about. Backstretch

Here is an article that should not surprise anyone. Copy and paste. http://deadspin.com/5925057/our-race-horses-are-broken-america

Shame, bet by the end of the year they will send him to Stud.

Bummer, what a grand looking colt along with Bode, Dullahan, Payter and IHA. Looks like Haskell will be Bafferts once again.,...

The frustrating thing will be that this horse will get huge offers to stand at stud in the US, unlike IHA who has to be deported! Even Bodemeister gets to stand in the US and he won what? 1 maiden allowance & 1 grade 1, that's it! Crazy.

No big loss to racing talentwise here. This colt is mediocre at best. My only regret is the money I'll not rake in betting against him the rest of the year. Put him out to stud, save his legs and the embarresment of a losing 4 yr old season.

We GOTTA stop allowing pressure on two year olds. The rules of Nature have been tampered with for far too long. Do NOT start them until September, limit them to three starts at no longer than 5 furlongs and remove them from that Breeders Cup Mess. Let these young Colts and Fillies have their third year of life for development , Yes we can have a nice schedule of races for them BUT write the Kentucky Derby and the other Triple Crown races for four year olds. We HAVE tampered with Mother Nature and She ain't Happy. Ms Wyeth should go on and retire Rags. He's done enough.